Apparatus for cooling or evaporating liquids.



No. 793,129. PATENTED JUNE 27, 1905. J. F. GRACE.

APPARATUS FOR COOLING OR EVAPORATING LIQUIDS.

APPLICATION FILED 0GT'.1,1904.

Patented June 27, 1905.

NITED STATES PATENT QFFTCE,

JOHN F. GRAO 1, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO HENRY R. \VORTI-I-INGTON, OF NEIV YORK, N. Y., A. CORPORA'lI()\ OF NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR COOLING OR EVAPORATING LIQUIDS.

' SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 793,129, dated June27, 1905.

Application filed October 1, 1904- Serial No. 226,761.

Be it known that I, JouN F. (lines, a citizen of the United States,resid ing at New York city, county of Kings, and State of New York,

5 have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus forCooliugor Evaporating Liquids. fully described and represented in thefollowing specification and the accompanying drawing, forminga partofthe IQ same.

The especial object of the present invention is to provide an improvedcooling tower which may be used either as a forced or natural drafttower and which shall be eflicicnt 5 in either use and provide for thechange from one use to the other readily and by means not materiallyincreasing the cost of the construction. In such cooling-towers, whichare now largely used in steam and other condensing plants and forsimilar purposes, it is desirable that the same tower should be usedunder some conditions with a forced draft, while under other conditionsthe less expensive natural draftis sufiicient. In using natural draft,

5 however, it is necessary to increase largely the air-inlet as comparedwith forced draft, the size of the fans and fan-openings used for forceddraft not having sufficient cross-area for natural draft.

Iprovide a construction in which the air for natural draft is admittedthrough the bottom of the tower, through which the water passes from thetower to the reservoir below the tower, and when the forced draft is tobe used simply close the bottom of the tower against the entrance of airby raising the level of water in the reservoir above the bottom of thetower, so as to seal the bottom opening of the latter.

In the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, Ihave shown asimple and convenient embodiment of the inven tion asapplied to a cooling-tower of common form, and this construction willnow be described in detail and the features forming the invention thenspecifically pointed out in the claims.

In the drawing, which shows the coolingtower in elevation and thehot-well or reservoir in section, with the lower part of the 5cooling-tower partly broken away, A is the cooling-tmver, which may beof any common or suitable construction and which is shown as providedwith the usual fans B for forcing air upward through the tower and whichis supported by the frame (1 above the reservoir D, the bottom of thecooling-tower be ing open, so as to permit the liquid to pass downwardinto the reservoir. The reservoir 1) is shown as provided with a lowoverflowpipe E, having valve (3 for opening and closing it, thisoverflow-pipe being for use with natural draft, and an upperoverflow-pipe F for use with forced draft. The usual suction-pipe (1leading from the hot-well or res- 5 ervoir I) to the pump, is shown.\Vhen the cooling-tower is to be used with forced draft, the fans B arein operation, the overflow-pipe E closed by valve 1:, and the level ofthe water in the reservoir D is maintained above 7 the bottom of thecooling-tower, as illustrated in the drawing, so as to seal the bottomof the tower against the passage of air from the tower under thepressure of the forced draft. W hen the tower is to be used with naturaldraft, the fans are stopped, the overflow-pipe E opened by opening valve(,4, and the level of the water is then as shown by the dotted line inthe drawing, giving the whole area of the bottom of the tower for theadmission of air. 30

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to towers foruse in cooling liquids, but that it may be used also in connection withtowers employed for eva11)orating liquids or other purposes in which acurrent 5 of air is to be passed upwardly through a tower under forcedor natural draft.

\Vhat I claim is- 1. The combination with a tower and means for forcingair upward through the tower, of 9 a liquid-reservoir below the towerinto which the bottom of the tower opens, and means for varying thelevel of liquid in the reservoir to seal the bottom opening of the toweror to open it to the atmosphere.

2. The combination with the tower A having one or more fans B, of theliquid-resermy hand in the presence of twoSubs'cTibing -voir D below thetoWer and overflow-pipe E Witnesses.

adapted to be opened for maintaining" a low level of the liquid fornatural draft or a high 5 level of the liquid to seal the bottom of theWitnesses:

tower for forced draft. C. J. SAWYER, In testimony whereof I havehereunto set J. A. GRAVES.

JQHN GRACE.

